We've had so much fun making weekly library trips lately. Hard as I try, the kids won't let me leave before we've checked out 10 books and 1 or 2 DVD's to watch. It's a great deal all the way around. The library itself is brand new, every book in there is brand new as well as every DVD. The children's library section has many tables and chairs where you can always see parents sitting with their children reading. I love to see kids getting that kind of attention. We actually prefer the cushier option where they have the "vintage-styled" vinyl covered furniture in bright primary colors. Other than the seats, some of the "furniture" includes an oversized colorful pencil/pillow, a huge opened book, etc. Last month, Melody read her first book all by herself. Here it is: "Do Lions Live on Lily Pads?" Very cute and simple with some funny possibilities to consider.
The books though that have been asked to be read and re-read the most are the cute little "George & Martha" books by James Marshall.
The stories feature two hippos who are just like an old married couple often unexpectedly offending the other, but quickly finding ways to make it up to them. Melody asks me to read and re-read these constantly. She can't contain her giggles looking at the illustrations sometimes. They are very comical! "George & Martha-Back in Town" was the first to get us hooked.
While I was at BYU Women's Conference, I attended one seminar on the benefits of reading with your children. An 80 year-old female college English professor stood up, after her younger peers had given their presentations, and gave us her 2 cents. She mentioned that we should read and re-read a book to a child as often as they ask. That's something I've always resisted, telling the kids, "We just read that one, pick something else." The elderly professor told us that if the child gets to hear the story over and over, they will learn a variety of expressions of speech and the proper voice inflections that go with certain phrases. It will build their vocabulary tremendously and help them learn how and when to use specific phrases. She was exactly right as an example of this occurred just last week. The girls had asked me to read one particular book day in and day out. In one story, the hippo George brags to Martha how he can dive off the high dive at the city pool....no problem! He can't wait to do it because so many people will be watching him. When it comes down to it, he chickens out and says, "I guess I lost my nerve." It was funny last week when Melody was at swimming lessons being brought over to the medium high-dive at the 10 ft. high school pool and in line to jump in to the teacher with the rest of her class. When she changed her mind and backed down off the short ladder, I heard her telling the teacher, and us later, "I lost my nerve. That's all, I just lost my nerve." I had to laugh when she said that.
This book is so fun to read in a sing-song way: "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom." Letters are climbing up the coconut tree then fall to the ground. After the fall, the letters are wearing bandages or have stubbed their "toe." Very cute for kids. The old professor I mentioned expressed her delight at the wide variety of fun exciting books that teach children to read, rather than the boring, monotone reading of the Dick & Jane or Janet & Mark books we used to have.
And one last one here, "Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type." It teaches children negotiation techniques as the cows negotiate with the farmer for electric blankets even to the point of withholding their milk. The library also has DVDs with many of these stories made into movies. Good times!!!
